Look at the youth -- from pre-teens
into their 20s -- if you want some signs of maturity about the Middle East.
Here are four examples for you.

In Jerusalem, Kids4Peace
began in 2002 to respond to concerns about the future of children in Israel and
Palestine, in response to increased violence. It brings together children
aged 10-12, from Jewish, Christian and Muslim families, and includes meetings
between Israeli and Palestinian families from both sides of the cultural and
political divide. Last summer the youth traveled to Housteon, Texas for a
summer camp experience. The children returned home to continue faithfully
in inter-cultural and interfaith learning and relating. Photos and
information are on the Web at:

The Jerusalem Circus
continues to bring together Palestinian and Israeli youth through the
arts. You can learn more from its founder, Israeli Elisheva Tobiass (
Tobiass@israsrv.net.il ) or from Californian Nathan Livni (
Nathan@JerusalemCircus.org ) who created its Web site, at:

The
New York University Israel-Palestine Dialogue that meets every other
Thursday was launched by American Jew Shana Kirsch (
conversationpeace_youth@yahoo.com ), along with with Sarah Hoffman
(Arab Student Union), Kellen Kaiser (Jewish), and Liz Aakhus (Lutheran from
Syria).
The NYU "Washington Square News"
reported: "If their first meeting was any indication of the future,
Kirsch shouldn't have to worry about attendance, at least."
"Nearly 40 people - males, females, Arabs,
Israelis, Americans, Muslims, Christians and Jews - showed up, voicing
curiosity and a readiness to talk."
The article describes how "...with opposing
campus groups staging heated demonstrations, Kirsch felt sidelined, 'not
comfortable going to the pro-Israeli protests or the Students for Palestine
ones. They weren't accomplishing anything, just yelling at each other.'"
"Kirsch quickly found she was not alone in her
confusion. Across the country, several friends of hers said they felt the same
way, impotent to create change within the confines of a black-and-white
argument."
Pastor Rhonda Hoehn, of NYU's Protestant ministry
agreed to monitor their meetings.
Shana Kirsch sees that "people on both sides of
this issue are incredibly passionate, and we're not trying to diminish their
passion."
"We want to create a place where people can talk
about their passions but also learn to listen, to accept that we all have our
own truths and learn to respect them."
Kellen Kaiser says: "I want girls in headscarves,
boys in kippas and everyone in the middle, I want them all to sit down and
listen."
These are the youth of the emerging "We
Generation," re-directing history for the good and inclusion of all.
-- L&L

We Can Talk it Out:
NYU Students Broach Middle East Conflict Through Dialogue

Hours before hosting her first
"dialogue" session for a group of NYU students, Shana Kirsch was harboring
paranoid thoughts.
"I'm just afraid people are going to come intentionally to sabotage
it," she said, smiling, still bundled in her coat indoors. "You know,
'spoilers.'"
Kirsch has reason to worry. It's an
Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue group she and three other NYU students put
together - just the title gives off sparks - and NYU's history of student
debate on the topic has been anything but peaceful.
"We want to make it very very clear, from the
beginning, that this is meant to be a sustained dialogue," Kirsch said,
stressing the last two words. "People are not going to be welcome if they
come to preach their own opinions."
If their first meeting was any indication of the
future, Kirsch shouldn't have to worry about attendance, at least. Nearly 40
people - males, females, Arabs, Israelis, Americans, Muslims, Christians and
Jews - showed up, voicing curiosity and a readiness to talk.
The organizers' trepidation was evident - the two
hours were spent mainly padding the issues, creating a long list of guidelines
for discussion -("We should strive for acceptance as well as
tolerance." "No no, cross out acceptance and put understanding"
"Is that ok? Is everyone ok with that?") It wasn't until the last few
minutes that topics for discussion were broached, a harbinger for what future
meetings may entail, as students called out "settlements,"
"terrorism," and "religious freedom fighting."
"This is only the beginning," said Kirsch,
who envisions the project extending throughout the semester. "It's going
to require a little bit of commitment to build relationships with people."
If the project succeeds, it will entail six more
meetings throughout the semester, aiming to bring together students of all
beliefs and backgrounds together and to organize projects like film screenings
and panel discussions. It could also mean a big step towards bridging the
communication gap between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups on campus.
It's been a long road to fruition for Kirsch, who
created the project as part of an independent study. But the idea for the
project has been in the works for over two years, so for Kirsch this is a
personal as well as academic achievement.
Raised in a conservative Jewish household in
California, Kirsch said she grew up with a one-sided understanding of the
conflict. That changed when she saw a film called "Peace of Mind" at
the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in the summer of 2000 that documented
the lives of seven Israelis and Palestinian teenagers who took part in a
program called Seeds of Peace.
"It opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn't
been aware of." Until then, she said, she had no real understanding of
"what a Palestinian was."
The film got her thinking. Coming from a strong Jewish
identity, Kirsch said she felt an inherent contradiction in the religious
values with which she had been raised - "tolerance, healing the
world," - and what was going on in Palestine. "The more I researched,
the more I was finding out what was going on there, I felt like I was just
butting my head up against a wall - like, how can this be?
The second intifada started that fall when Kirsch
returned to NYU for her sophomore year, and she felt impelled to become
involved. But with opposing campus groups staging heated demonstrations, Kirsch
felt sidelined, "not comfortable going to the pro-Israeli protests or the
Students for Palestine ones. They weren't accomplishing anything, just yelling
at each other."
Kirsch quickly found she was not alone in her
confusion. Across the country, several friends of hers said they felt the same
way, impotent to create change within the confines of a black-and-white
argument.
"The argument becomes so polarized," she
said. "People aren't willing to deal with the grey areas. Why don't we
just try to deal with the grey issues?"
It isn't an entirely new concept. Len and Libby
Traubman, a couple living in San Mateo, California, began a Jewish-Palestinian
Dialogue in their living room in 1992, inviting people from all backgrounds to
take part in a weekly discussion. The meetings became hugely popular; articles
were written on the couple, and several groups sprouted in imitation across the
country. The idea was to create a respectful atmosphere in which people could discuss
their fears and concerns without threat of violent reactions.
Using the Traubmans as a model, Kirsch began to
formulate the concept for the project that year. Friends of hers in other
universities have done likewise, in what may become a network of campus
dialogue groups.
"There is potential in conflict," said
Pastor Rhonda Hoehn, of NYU's Protestant ministry and an expert in conflict
resolution who agreed to monitor the meetings. "It's not that competition
negotiations are bad, but when you compete, you don't really care about the
relationship. In a collaborative approach, you want to get to know the other,
you want to come back, you want to build a relationship and grow from exchange.
"If more of our national leaders were collaborative
we wouldn't be in the state we are now," she said.
Aside from the pastor, Kirsch enlisted three NYU women
to help organize the project, all of whom hail from vastly different
backgrounds and political stances: Sarah Hoffman, a senior and the secretary
for the Arab Student Union at NYU, Liz Aakhus, a junior who is Lutheran and
grew up in Damascus, Syria, and Kellen Kaiser, a left-wing pro-Israeli activist
and senior at Tisch.
"As a left-wing Zionist, I am almost constantly
frustrated," said Kaiser. "Mostly I feel like no one is listening,
like I might as well be screaming at the heavens. I also recognize that I am
not alone in my feelings, that in this conflict and in general, people feel
unheard. I find dialogue to be the solution to that dilemma. It is a structured
form for people to calm down and listen to each other, with guidelines to
maintain a safe space."
Kaiser, who has been hired by the Bronfman Center to
help reorganize the pro-Israeli student group now known as Gesher, hopes that
the dialogue group will help fuel a campus-wide effort to communicate. "[I
want] everyone represented. I want girls in headscarves, boys in kippas and
everyone in the middle, I want them all to sit down and listen."
Those who ventured into the basement room for the
first discussion seemed eager to both listen and talk. Many echoed the
organizers' own motives, saying they came to see "what's being said
outside of the campus rallies."
Kirsch is aware that meetings might not always be so peaceful and is prepared.
"People on both sides of this issue are
incredibly passionate, and we're not trying to diminish their passion,"
she said. "We want to create a place where people can talk about their
passions but also learn to listen, to accept that we all have our own truths
and learn to respect them.
"I understand that it's personal for people.
People have families there and religious beliefs. But we're privileged to live
in this open society which is supposedly tolerant, especially in an academic
setting. We should be able to talk."